5.28.09 Arriving Italy – to Venice

Venice Travel Blog

Vex- double vex!You take one wrong yield, end up on a new highway, GPS goes askew, and you’re on a road headed *opposite* where you want to go- Venice!And there’s no turn-around or exit for twenty miles, far north of town.It nears 5pm.Plan is awry- tempers flare- but we made it! (We know of 5 other campers who did the exact same thing!Poorly signed).

It was about 5 hours of driving today.Our ferry landed in Ancona and while we waited to exit, an entertaining Greek-now German guy, offered colorful disparaging commentary on the nature of every nationality of nearby license plates.None were spared his remarks, including his own country.However, he did let me know that the find for traveling without a hazard panel on the bikes in Italy is 500 E on the spot.It is 1200E if you want to pay later!Can you believe that?

We stopped at the first gas station in Ancona and they were SO NICE that they spent about 15 minutes calling around to find out *where* to buy the hazard panel.No one has them!Apparently, the campervan folks get them from ANRC, their version of AAA.

We’ve not seen any ANRC offices and after awhile, I finally stopped him from going to so much effort, went back to the camper, and took all the bikes off.Sugar’s garage is big enough that all the bikes fit in there fine.We reloaded a few containers, all but 2 fit, and then we removed the bike rack too, with just 2 screws.

All this meant that the worry about the 500E fine for missing the hazard panel was simply eliminated.Vaporized.No more worries.We’ll either find a panel or just deal with the bins in the way while in Italy.

Anyway, Camping Fusina is nice (40E for the 4 of us per night), right on the water overlooking twinkly Venice.It’s quite full too this Thursday night!We’d probably hunker down for a few nights.

There is a Camping Fusina boat to Venice- just 15 minutes across the lake or lagoon or wherever we are to Venice.It is expensive though (12E return, 6E kids), so we’ll likely take the cheap bus (2.20E each return), which takes 55 minutes versus 15, but will leave us more funds for fun.

We are on the ship channel and every once in awhile a HUGE ship will pass within 50 yards of our lawn chairs- an awesome sight! There are kayakers right in front of us.

There is a lot of energy here- we see students making canoes and now the waterfront spots are full.We got the last one.There’s no real system and we just squeezed in along with our neighbors.John and Elizabeth from England are very nice and we’ve enjoyed talking with them.

Jazy enjoyed meeting some Parisian architect college students- I was proud of her for just going up to meet them.I was also glad she declined the beer they offered her!

The sun is setting, the sound of laughter and water splashes from the pier, and birds singing fill the air.It is a beautiful day with just the perfect temperature air.

We’re just happy to be here!We’ll explore Venice, try to book our museum time in Florence for next week.I plotted out the places we hope to visit, drew a line on the map with the major roads, and that, my friends, became our “plan.”It is highly sophisticated and researched (NOT!) and will guide us as we attempt to see the next 6 weeks of Europe.

Is it high season?June is near!I tremble with the thoughts of all those people.We’ll research and enjoy to the fullest!